Monday, September 19, 2011

A Garden Party

I’d like to share with you my little slice of paradise from last week! One of my best friends has left us for 4 months abroad in France, and so it seemed fitting to have a classy little afternoon of treats to see her off! You’d be amazed how full you can get off all these little snacks...by the end of day, as it finally started to get dark, we were too stuffed to move!I found some lovely glass pieces from Value Village which were perfect for our get together; I had been looking for a beautiful sandwich platter for awhile, and came across one that was just perfect for our fresh cucumber sandwiches. I found the glass container for our strawberry vanilla lemonade at Value Village as well, and I’ll be able to use it in the fall as well for serving wine! I came across the punch bowl there as well, which we used to scoop out copious amount of sangria!

I found these lovely cameo pieces in a local baking shop called Scoop-n-Save Ltd. and thought they would be an excellent match for my London fog cupcakes. I made mini ones this time, using the same recipe I’ve posted here earlier this summer. I liked the effect piping the icing gave them this time, as opposed to using the tried and true butter knife technique.

These were probably my favourite snack of the afternoon...I introduce to you: pink lemonade cupcakes! I stumbled upon this recipe trying to find something quick and easy for the party. These are certainly easy to make, and they were so tasty I was eating the leftovers for breakfast and dinner the rest of the week! You can find the recipe here: http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2010/04/pink-lemonade-cupcakes.html They are surprisingly light and fluffy, and have the perfect amount of tartness. I highly recommend them!

My cake pops were definitely a first attempt... I was hoping to be super creative and put little Chanel C’s on them with black icing, but they didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped. Dipping them in the white chocolate was much fussier than I’d expected! I’ll let you know once I perfect this one :)

One of the lovely girls also brought some carrot cake muffins, stuffed full of raisins and walnuts. They were absolutely amazing! I didn’t know I could eat so many cupcakes in one sitting...but I wanted to make sure I had at least one of everything. If you want something sweet, but not too sweet to give you a toothache, these are a great option. Very filling!